Downtown Leroy Brown

Originally Published In The August 2016 Issue Of Cycle Source Magazine

Terry Whitten and his best friend Paul are the original founding members of a hot rod club named Hard Knox. The club’s main interest is building cool bikes and hot rods as a way to represent their custom life style. As you all know, once you have built several bikes you begin to unintentionally collect extra parts. Terry began to realize that he had lots of extra parts in the shop and he and his brother Brent Whitten decided to build a bike out of them all. The original intent was to build a no frills bike that they could rip around town on. A few weeks later Terry and Brent were in Columbus for the Easyrider Show, when they ran across a good deal on a Paunch wishbone rigid frame from an old friend Josh. The brothers immediately decided to use it as a base for all the extra parts and the build was on. The original intent was to build a no frills bike that they could use to rip around town on. Once back to the shop they began to catalog all their parts and begin the build process. Terry’s son Zane cleaned up the fame and applied a cheap quick coat Bahama blue. The frame was fitted with a 2” under wide glide frontend and a bare metal Wassel tank. The bars were a swap meet find and are attached with a set of Lowbrow Customs risers. They had a set of HD spoke wheels that were mated with Speedmaster front and Shinko tires. The 21” front and 16” rear offered the perfect look on the bike. A scrap piece of aluminum was formed into a seat and friend Johnny Rocket, fabbed up the rear fender. Now that the roller was complete they started on the drivetrain.

The brothers had a hot rod 100 inch Evo that Cody Watson had built for them. It was a killer engine that was just waiting to be used in the right bike. The Evo was fitted with a “hot” Jims Speedshop cam, S&S pistons, and other go fast parts. The heads had also been cleaned up for optimum flow. The engine was matted to a Jims 6 speed transmission sporting a Barnett clutch. Terry was in need of a primary drive so he bought an Ultima open belt setup and fitted it with a killer set of mid controls from Boosted Brad. The other accessories like the headlight, grips, etc. were gathered up and fitted to the bike. Brent wired the bobber and the final assembly was completed in just 2 weeks time. Just as it was coming off the lift, Terry’s 16-year-old son Zane, came into the shop. Zane immediately fell in love with the bike. Terry paid his brother for his parts and the bike was Zane’s. The plan was for him to ride it around for a couple months and then tear it down to paint it. The bike was finished up just in time to make a trip to the Smoke Out where it was picked as one of the winning bikes for the event. Terry really loved the bike and couldn’t bear the thought of Zane changing it in the near future. At this point Zane agreed to leave the bike just as his dad and uncle had built if they would help him build another one just like he wanted.

The brothers had a hot rod 100 inch Evo that Cody Watson had built for them. It was a killer engine that was just waiting to be used in the right bike. The Evo was fitted with a “hot” Jims Speedshop cam, S&S pistons, and other go fast parts. The heads had also been cleaned up for optimum flow. The engine was matted to a Jims 6 speed transmission sporting a Barnett clutch. Terry was in need of a primary drive so he bought an Ultima open belt setup and fitted it with a killer set of mid controls from Boosted Brad. The other accessories like the headlight, grips, etc. were gathered up and fitted to the bike. Brent wired the bobber and the final assembly was completed in just 2 weeks time. Just as it was coming off the lift, Terry’s 16-year-old son Zane, came into the shop. Zane immediately fell in love with the bike. Terry paid his brother for his parts and the bike was Zane’s. The plan was for him to ride it around for a couple months and then tear it down to paint it. The bike was finished up just in time to make a trip to the Smoke Out where it was picked as one of the winning bikes for the event. Terry really loved the bike and couldn’t bear the thought of Zane changing it in the near future. At this point Zane agreed to leave the bike just as his dad and uncle had built if they would help him build another one just like he wanted.

The very first ride Zane made on the bobber ended at the county fair where he would attempt to master the mechanical bull. The bull operator announced to the crowd that he was “going downtown Leroy Brown” just before he launched Zane off the bull and into the air. Terry warned his son that this hot rod bobber would also launch him off just liken that bull did. So with that, the bike was named. Terry wants to thank his brother Brent Whitten for allowing Zane to get his first bike and his beautiful wife Lisa for putting up with he and their son’s undying passion for cool bikes and hot rods!